Jane Dodds under fire over Lib Dem slavery donations

Martin Shipton

Under-fire Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds has been challenged over revelations that her party has benefitted from donations made by a member of a prominent slave-owning family.

Nation.Cymru has reported how Ms Dodds was accused of a “grave error of judgement” in not progressing an allegation of sexual abuse made against a Bishop while she was working as a senior safeguarding manager for the Church of England.

The criticism of Ms Dodds – the sole Lib Dem in the Senedd – appeared in a report called Betrayal of Trust, based on an inquiry led by retired judge David Pearl into historic and prolific sex abuse carried out by Hubert Victor Whitsey, a former Bishop of Chester.

While Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey hinted that Ms Dodds should resign over the issue, the board of the Welsh Liberal Democrats has said they do not consider her transgression to be a resigning matter.

Now a Welsh Lib Dem source has raised concerns about Ms Dodds’ attitude to donations made to the party she leads by a supporter named Edmund Douglas-Pennant.

Atlantic slave trade

The party source told us: “The Pennant family, more recently Douglas-Pennant, have been a prominent north Wales family for more than 250 years. The source of their wealth is well documented but it was principally derived from the Atlantic slave trade, which enabled them to invest in their controversial north Wales slate mines.

“At the time of abolition in 1833, 764 people were enslaved by the Pennant family on their estates in Jamaica, but over the course of the many decades of plantation ownership, the family would have enslaved many more victims. In 1834, the Pennant family were compensated by the British Government for the value of their emancipated slaves. The Pennant family received £14,682 in compensation. This equates to approximately £1,334,000 today. Freed slaves received no compensation.

“The fortunes of the Douglas-Pennant family have waned but there is still a legacy of inherited wealth, which is evidenced by the wider family having a charitable trust (which appears to have helped no-one in recent years) and the apparent ready access to disposable income as evidenced by the donations Edmund Douglas-Pennant has made to the Liberal Democrats over the past two decades.

“There have been many articles in the public domain about the accumulation of wealth derived from the Atlantic slave trade. In Wales there has been a significant amount of attention focused on the Douglas-Pennant family. Much has been written about their ostentatious use of the proceeds of slavery.

“Since the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol there has been an increasing amount of press coverage relating to the slave trade. Some of this directly mentions the Douglas-Pennant family.

“Edmund Douglas-Pennant has been a major donor to the Lib Dems. Over the past 13 years he has donated more than £33,000 pounds to the party, most of this directly to the Welsh Lib Dems and to two Welsh local parties; Montgomeryshire, and Brecon and Radnorshire. The majority of his donations have been made in two distinct periods; June 30 2015 to December 29 2016 (£11,000) and March 31 2019 to the present (£15,500). The two donations paid directly into local party funds each coincide with the candidacy of Jane Dodds in those constituencies.”

Debt

Edmund Douglas-Pennant has stated publicly in relation to slavery and its legacy: “Morally there is a debt, but practically on economic lines, you can’t do it because so many generations have gone by.”

The Welsh Lib Dem source who raised the issue with us said: “The party has a duty of care to all of its members to ensure that the party is acting in the members best interests. Some members may be deemed to be vulnerable. Were any assessments made of this donor and were any safeguarding procedures deemed necessary to ensure that he was not being unduly exploited or manipulated?

“A branch of the Douglas-Pennant family operates a charitable foundation but there is no record of Edmund Douglas-Pennant’s involvement in this charity. There is no information on the Charities Commission for England and Wales searchable site indicating his involvement in any charities. It would appear that Edmund Douglas-Pennant has no formal charitable works which would attempt to ameliorate the exploitations of the past. Internet search engines do not return any results for these.

“The rise of Black Lives Matter and increasing consciousness of the legacy of slavery. Since the EU referendum on June 2016 and the election of Donald Trump in the USA, there has been renewed impetus to the civil rights movement and a considerable amount of media coverage devoted to historical links between contemporary racism and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. No-one with access to media coverage could have failed to notice or engage with these issues.

“During her tenure as leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Jane Dodds has reported her fund raising activities to the party’s National Executive Committee. In her ‘Leader’s Report-One Year On’ which was presented to the NEC in November 2018 she notes under her section Money’: ‘Monthly payments in excess of £1K per month secured for campaigning in the party, and for other funds.’

“An examination of the Electoral Commission returns for the Welsh Liberal Democrats shows that there is only one donor who pays £1,000 per month to the Welsh party. There appears to be no other significant donor to the Welsh party that contributes on a regular basis.

“From the above information it could be concluded that Jane Dodds has been the driving force behind the securing of these funds or at the very least has been privy to the fund raising process.

“The coincidence of direct donations to local parties and the presence of Jane Dodds as the candidate needs to be further investigated. There should also be further investigation to see if and how Jane Dodds’ campaigns have directly benefited from these and other donations by Edmund Douglas-Pennant.

“Members could expect that all donations to the Liberal Democrats should be thoroughly vetted to see if the source of the funding is consistent with our ethics.

“It seems unlikely that Jane Dodds could not have known about the historic links between the Douglas-Pennant family and the Atlantic Slave trade. She has lived in Wales. She has worked as a social worker in child protection. Background checks and vetting are an intrinsic part of this profession.

“Lib Dem members would be appalled to know that the party has been in receipt of funds from a source which has accumulated over many years but which is irrefutably linked to the Atlantic slave trade. As leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Jane Dodds is responsible for ensuring the wellbeing of her party. Her judgement should be consistent with and representative of the party’s ethics. By accepting funds from this source, there is potential for serious damage to be done to the reputation of the party.”

Injustice

A spokesperson for the Welsh Liberal Democrats said in relation to an earlier, less detailed story published in 2021: “We stand by the statement we have already made and will not be commenting further on this matter.”

In 2021 a spokesperson for the Welsh Liberal Democrats said: “The Welsh Liberal Democrats, including all party donors and supporters, are committed to ending injustice and inequality and creating a fairer, equal and more just society for everyone. Those values and principles shape the issues that we champion and how we conduct ourselves as a party .

The donor in question [Edmund Douglas-Pennant] has made financial contributions to support the party’s aims and values including helping to launch the party’s BAME candidates’ fund ahead of the Welsh local elections in May 2022.”